South Side With Yu -1979

My film version of my imaginary date with Linda Yu at Marquette Park in August 1979.

I remember it like it was yesterday, only yesterday I cut the grass and pulled a few weeds, because Mike Regan made fun of me and my lawn again, " Hey, the Hickey Urban Prairie is in full flowering . . .I mean dandelion-ing.  Jesus, Hick do you ever put any Scott's on this patch of weeds?"

Yes; yes I do.  To my reverie.

1979 - I was beginning my fourth year as a teacher in Kankakee, Illinois at Bishop McNamara High School.  It was August and school would begin in a week and went home for the weekend and tended bar Reilly's Daughter on 111th Street.  The Chicago Ag School was still a working farm.  Jimmy Carter was in the White House. Mike Bilandic was still in the big Chair on Five. Thin Lizzy Played at Comiskey Park with Carlos Santana and Eddie Money on August 5th, Boz allowed me to pick up a few bucks behind the bar.  I also played guitar and banjo in the trio - Sons of Reilly's Daughter -but this weekend Berwyn Moose an eight piece rock big band comprised of talented medical students who played brass-rock Chicago, Ides of March, Buckinghams, Motown and jazz standards would be packing the place.


Two women worked with me; the  one behind the bar was also an assistant manager and the other as waitress for the tables in the bar and out in the big beer garden.

I worked Friday afternoons from 11 AM to 6PM, when Denny Leake took over.  I filled the coolers with Heineken's, John Courage Ale, Becks, Miller, Miller Lite, checked the barrels of Bud, Michelob, Guinness and Harp for the taps, cut fruit for the cocktails, washed the bar and glasses.  At about 11:30  AM guys my Dad's age popped in for a few toddies.  These guys, all WW2 veterans, were not huge on snappy banter, witticisms, opinions, cheerful bon mots, or other indicators for their collective semiotic evaluations," Give your ears a chance, Kid. Nobody likes a bullshitter."

Short of answers to," Got Sunnybrook?"  verbal intercourse must be kept as secret as what these guys and their brides did behind closed doors - " Get me?"

I made great martinis, old fashions, gimlets and poured a well timed shot on request and with the promptitude earned by the killers of Japs and Nazis.

By three in the afternoon, tradesmen began popping in and pitchers of draft beer would stabilize the eight hours of hard labor with an evening of domestic joys.  Crews of Street and Sanitation workers, electricians, wood butchers, fitters and laborers crowded Reilly's Daughter's beer garden and the waitress St. Pauli Girl's fists of pitchers out to the thirsty gents.

The Roman collar on a beer is as important as the aroma and the taste.  I learned that no one wants a pitcher of flat looking beer and if there was not enough foam collaring the top the pitcher, all I need to do was stick a rolled up paper towel into the brew and give a few swift swirls.  " Pitchers Up, Rennie!"

At five o'clock a gorgeous Asian girl took a stool right in front of the Jewish Typewriter - the Epstein - the cash register.   I had been stuffing the trays with fives and tens from the last order and was gob-smacked by the vision of loveliness that I had turned to see.  I was unattached.

As Mike Regan might offer, " What's it to you?"

Well, every man confronts destiny.  I gave her my best dispassionate and professional, " What can I get you."

The beauty who seemed to have brought a personal spotlight on her charms smiled, " A Guinness please."

I put one up as directed allowing the magical black and cream colors to cascade and settle - sit - add more- settle and sit - do the magic with spoon to top off and place before the client for inspection and acceptance.

In Indiana some gump pulls once on the sacred black back & forth handles and plumps the visual equal to Quaker State 40 weight before a beer swiller - that is not a Guinness.  That is an affront to St. James's Gate and centuries of porter acolytes who made Guinness synonymous with goodness.  This was Reilly's Daughter on the south side of Chicago and not some shot and beer joint in Bum Hump, Indiana.

The Black Magic was about as good a pour as I could master.

" You really know your stuff. I usually get a glass of flat black water.  I had heard that this a great place for Guinness," the girl who could shame Nancy Kwan herself had been pleased by my mean efforts.

A six Gimlet Man, veteran of WWII, called over , " Hey, kiddo, I missed a few of your cousins on Luzon a few years back."

Unfazed the pretty girl fired back," Wrong, my dear man.  I am Chinese American."

That quieted the man.

" Sorry, these old timers do the same when some one seems too German for them, as well and then the jokes start."

"Jokes?"

"Yeah," I answered, " Have you heard about the deal at the German barbershop?  Haircuts $4."

" $4," she drew out the pay-off.

" A dollar a side."

Again, I had gained smiling approval and even more exciting the old veterans were hitting the silk and heading home. I must plunge.

After collecting fees and tips from what would soon be called The Greatest Generation, I cleaned glasses and allowed the gorgeous woman to enjoy her Guinness.

She asked for change to play the juke box and played the The Logical Song, " I love Breakfast in America!"

Now, I plunged, "What is your name if you don't mind my asking."

" Linda. And you are?"

"Pat Hickey, I am a high school teacher in Kankakee?"

" Is that near here?"

" No, it is downstate a bit."

" I just took a job here in Chicago.  I was born in China and moved to Los Angeles."

" What do you do," I asked in the most probing of 'none of your damn business but friendly Chicagoans always ask anyway' manner.

" I'm in TV -I will be anchoring the NBC weekend news."

" That's great. Have you found a place to live?"

" Yes, I have an apartment in Lincoln Park.  NBC helped me find a really nice studio with great view of the park.  It is near R. J. Grunts, that is a nice spot. Have you ever been there?"

I said no but that Boz the Owner used to hit the brunch there once in a while.  I was breath taken, floored - stone in love. I asked, " Have you seen much of the south side?  Would you care to see Marquette Park.  I am off  in twenty minutes and we could leave your car here in the lot."

" That will be nice."

And Linda and I headed out to Lithuanian Plaza.  I pointed out Rockwell Hall at 71st the Home of the fruitcakes of the American Nazi Party.  

Then I suggested that we take in the art deco memorial to Lithuanian aviators Darius and Girenas, Lithuanian Deli for some good old Loogan  Kibinai

We walked around the lagoon and she took my hand. " This was a very nice visit to the park. Hard to believe that Dr. King was hit with a brick here, " she offered
       .

I Knew that it was time to end our time together, " Linda, may I ask you out on a date?  I would to take you to Baby Doll Polka Club and 6511 Club on Kedzie."

" You may ask, but seriously doubt if I will find time to seriously do anything but keep my job here, Pat. You will be going back to Kankakee and I will anchor the weekend News on Five. You pour wonderful Guinness and this Lithuanian food is a treat. but let's just leave it at that."

I asked," What is your family name, Linda?"

"Yu."

"What?"

"My family name is Yu - Linda Yu. Will you please take me back to my car - this was very nice."

We drove up Kedzie, past the Nabisco Cookie plant and through Tommy More parish, Evergreen Park, past Mac Lang's on 103rd, where I took a right to Pulaski and then south to 111th Street and Reilly's Daughter.

Yep, I like to think that I spent some quality time of the south side with Yu. Linda Yu.

If the Ag School were open then I could have spent some quality time on the south side of Chicago with ewe.

Mike Houlihan Celebrates 35 Years of Boz O'Brien's Reilly's Daughter Pub -Oak Lawn and Midway Airport

The Great Boz O'Brien and son Brendan

I was not a fast bartender' nor, was I a slow bartender; Boz O'Brien said that I was a "Half Fast Bartender." At least that was how I recall James "Boz" O'Brien's assessment. I was part of the early crews ( 1975-77) pouring, uncapping and mixing wholesome beverages to fine folks at Reilly's Daughter Pub.

Irish American News presents Chicago Renaissance Man and Brasseuse on the Loose, Mike Houlihan's penning of a poignant paen to one of the great Captains of the Counter - Boz O'Brien on the 35th Anniversary of the Birth of Reilly's Daughter

Here's a shot -

It was June 16, Bloomsday, 1976 when Boz O’Brien opened his saloon, Reilly’s Daughter, in Oak Lawn at 111th and Pulaski. A shopping mall seems a strange place for a tavern but it had plenty of parking and it became the most popular watering hole in Chicagoland for anybody coming of age in the final three decades of the last century.

If ever there was a place where everybody knew your name, this was the place.

Boz tells me the secret of his success has always been the people who work at Reilly’s, but his talents as the PT Barnum of bar owners never hurt.

Boz once booked a pair of CTA cars for a 3 hour pre-St. Paddy’s train ride all over Chicago on the EL It was 1977 and on Feb. 7th of that year four cars had derailed and fallen off the track at Lake and Wabash. Somebody at the CTA figured that having these Irish kids party on the EL only a month after the crash might show Chicago that there was nothing to fear. It was a public relations stroke of genius and Reilly’s Daughter sold out all 200 tickets for the ride.

Click my title for a full swallow!

Beer Here! Beer Here! Boz O'Brien Brings Brew Midway Oasis in Brew Desert

". . .a woman is like beer. They look good, they smell good, and you'd step over your own mother just to get one!" Homer

From Ceapflights via the Dethronner comes this tribute to an American Hero - James "Boz" O'Brien

This gentleman scholar-athlete opened Reilly's Daughter Pub in 1975 ( full disclosure: I was one of the original bartenders, while teaching at Bishop Mac) and moved the pub from 111th Street to Midway Airport.

Boz featured Imported and Hand-crafted brews when most Chicagoans thought Andecker was an Import. I was a dedicated Drewry's man myself - loved the Mountie!

– With a name like Boz O’Brein you know the guy has got to run a bar. And he does. It’s in the postsecurityfood court at Chicago Midway (MDW)
www.flychicago.com and it’s called Reilly’sDaughter. The first thing you’ll want to
know about this cozy enclave is thatthe bar, and all its furniture, was
crafted in Ireland. The second thing you’ll want to know is that much of
the beer is Irish – Guinness, Harp,and Smithwick’s – and all on-tap.
When O’Brien first opened the place,“I didn’t think people would be interested
in Irish beer,” he said. So, O’Brien stocked up on mass-produced American brands. He was wrong.

Guinness is his best seller. Now, the brew matches the ambience. If you’re stuck at Midway waiting for an airplane, this is where you’ll want to be.
– Go goose hunting at Chicago O’Hare (ORD)
www.flychicago.com. The Goose Island Beer
Company www.gooseisland.com recently set up
shop in Terminal 1, Concourse C between Gates 8
and 10. The Goose Island enclave is a contemporary
brasserie affair. Lots of ambience –lots of good beer.
Try Honker Ale – blessed with a spicy hop aroma

Well Done Boz!

Ted and Me - It was the Summer of 1980 and . . .I was not teaching school . . .and Drinking and Fishing in the Kankakee!

Aug. 12, 1980: In an emotional speech to the Democratic National Convention, withdraws his bid for the presidency.

I was not moved. It was politics. God, I am such a mean cynical bastard about our elected officials.

Senator Ted Kennedy died of a brain tumor, actually the brain tumor does not kill but complications to all the other organs ( renal failure e.g.) due to the tumor put out the lights. This I know.

Everyone with a thigh is moved. . .moved I say . . . to recount their tales of the Old Lion of the Senate and to somehow insinuate themselves into Ted's Tale. I have a brace of them -thighs -not tales - nicely fleshed but masculine. I got one tale of Ted.

Here goes. In 1980, I was in my fifth year of teaching English at Bishop Martin D. McNamara High School in Kankakee, my third year of dating the lovely and witty Mary Elizabeth Cleary whom I would be blessed with in marriage, partnership in parenthood in 1983 and forced to send back to God in 1998, and in my sixth year as 5-string banjo ( C tuning)/Guitarist ( Gibson J240) with Sons of Reilly's Daughter with Terry McEldowney ( singer) and Willie Winters ( Vocals Guitar). On special occasions we'd be joined by the great Whitey O'Day!

We were practiced and for the most part profesional.

Sometime that summer we were asked to play in the Auditorium of Mother McAuley High School to warm up the house for Senator Ted Kennedy who was running for President against the aimless Jimmy Carter. I was a Jimmy Boy until about two weeks into the Carter White House when the Man from Plains revealed himself to be the Bunny Phobe Bored Round the World.

Anyway, we were excited to play a freebie for a Kennedy. We had played at the Old Beverly House on the triangle at 103rd/Ashland/Vincennes for Sarge Shriver who could not pack a phone booth a couple of years earlier, but this was the Bloodline Himself.

We played Irish songs, Italian songs, Polish songs, Jewish songs, and C/W hits much to the thigh-tingling excitement of the crowd - Teddy was late. Congressman Marty Russo got there ahead of Teddy and pumped up the crowd some more . . .still no Teddy.

Terry McEldowney asked the crowd if Marty Russo were not the "Tallest Trunk-Stuffer they had ever seen?" Much to the amusement of the best Congressman the 3rd District ever had. Still no Teddy.

We were asked by impressario Boz O'Brien to do one more set. We did. I broke two strings on the 5-string Willie did guitar work for Ballads Danny Boy & Kevin Barry. I was bent over getting out strings and got knocked over by security Teddy was on!

He said "Hhhhhhhheerrrrreeeee innnnn SHA-Caw-wah-Gow!!!!!! . .. .yadda yadda" Five minutes and gone all the while I was monkeying with two strings I'd not need that day. I never saw his mug, shook his mitt or said Howdy. I was on the floor stringing my banjo. Show Over. Ah, Teddy, I hardly knew ye! God speed.

Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy - Show Over.

Durbin 'The Greek' Schools Alexis Giannoulias at Reilly's Daughter Pub Before Taking Off for Greece!

Durbin - Listen Alexi

Giannoulias - Alexis - drink the Retsina slowly . . .

Durbin- If a woman sleeps alone, it puts a shame on all men.
A man needs a little madness...or else...he never dares cut the rope and be free. What kind of man are you? Don't you even like dolphins? Life is trouble. Only death is not.

Gianoulias- Senator . . .Dick . . . Retsina is potent . . .here give me your glass . . .No!!! Not the Metaxa!

Durbin -To be alive is to undo your belt and look for trouble.
On a dear man's door, you can knock forever! All right, we go outside where God can see us better.

Giannoulias - Dick . . .Sit Down! Senator, you might not be ready for Greece - look we are only at Reilly's Daughter in Midway and . . .

Durbin- Those damn cats!

Giannaoulias - Nancy Pelsoi . . .

Durbin - Silly old bitch. Why do the young die? Why does anybody die?
--What's the use of all your damn books if they can't answer that? --They tell me about the agony of men who can't answer questions like yours? --I spit on this agony!

Giannoulias- Senator, that is your second glass of Retsina on no food. Greeks can handle this but fire-water in the Irish is not so good. Boz O'Brien is coming over - please, keep it down.

Durbin -The lamb, it will burn! You are cruel! Boss, why did God give us hands? To grab. Well, grab! You think too much, that is your trouble. Clever people and grocers, they weigh everything. Oracle It was the dancing When my little boy Dimitri died…and everybody was crying… Me, I got up and I danced. They said, "Zorba is mad." But it was the dancing — only the dancing that stopped the pain.

Giannoulias - I have him Boz . . .he'll sleep on the plane